


A Thousand Years

by EmpressofTears



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Angst, Children of Earth Spoilers, Introspection, Jack leaves Torchwood after Children of Earth, M/M, guys this is depressing, im sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-31 21:02:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10907403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmpressofTears/pseuds/EmpressofTears
Summary: A thousand years after Children of Earth, Jack takes a moment to reflect. Promises to a dying man, after all, deserve to be kept.





	A Thousand Years

**Author's Note:**

> I was going through my drafts and cleaning up my folders when I found this. I had to edit heavily because I wrote it years ago and it was utter shit, but I'm rather proud with how it turned out. Full disclosure, it's been a few months since I watched Torchwood, but my love for the show and these characters is still alive.

Captain Jack Harkness was at a sleazy bar, the kind of place where one-night stands were quickly made in the bathroom and forgotten by morning. The booze was cheap and the lights were dim, but he didn’t really care. It wasn’t surprising to find him spending his years of eternity surrounded by alcohol and beautiful people. A thousand years may have passed since he left Earth and Torchwood for good, but he hadn’t changed that much. 

He wasn’t flirting, surprisingly enough. The Doctor liked to tease him and joke that he never knew how to stop flirting, that even an introduction could count as a proposition, but it was never quite true. Jack certainly knew how to keep to himself, and there were some nights that he preferred the company of his own thoughts than anyone else. 

But this was a night of remembrance.

_Jack could still feel himself walking up to the glass cage of the 456. He should have known, should have taken half a second to stop and think and make a plan. He should have thought things through, but he was younger then. He was cocky and immortal and had no idea how much he had to lose. He had sworn to fight… it was all his fault._

Jack sighed into his drink, drawing the attention of the woman next to him at the bar. 

“You okay?” the stranger asked. 

Jack simply waved off the concern, easily throwing a smile over his shoulder and evading the question. He took a long sip of his drink, the alcohol burning the back of his throat. Was he okay? Jack tipped back his glass and set down the empty tumbler. The simple answer was no.

_Jack numbly felt himself falling to his knees. He was empty, so painfully empty. There was his love, his hope. There was the only thing tying Jack to reality. The minutes that he held him in his arms, as he begged him not to leave, not to go, not to… to die… Those minutes were more painful than any physical torture Jack had ever known. Time is supposed to slow down in times of distress. The world is supposed to turn to molasses and Jack was supposed to have the chance to look Ianto in the eyes one last time. But the universe is cruel, and goodbyes never go the way we want them to. The man Jack loved was dying. He was dying in his arms, and Jack could do nothing, only whisper empty promises into Ianto’s ear and hope that the sound of his voice was comfort enough in those last few moments. The one true promise he gave, Jack never forgot. It was etched into his heart, a contract with the dead that could never be reversed._

_He had promised to never forget._

So every year for a thousand years, Jack went to a bar. He sat by himself and drank alone and remembered. 

He drank to the memory of Ianto. 


End file.
